2024 Humanitas Prize Watchlist
In honor of the 2024 Humanitas Prize Nominees announcement in Variety, below is a watchlist of those films and teleplays with links to platforms they are streaming on. 56 writers are nominated for their work across 9 juried categories. Winners will be announced at The Humanitas Prizes Award Show & Toast, an in-person event at Avalon Hollywood on September 12, 2024.
Drama Teleplay
Black Cake (“Nine Night”) (Written by Marissa Jo Cerar)
After Eleanor's funeral, Byron and Benny finally learn the truth about the murder on the night of their mother's wedding.
Stream it now on Hulu
The Crown (“Ritz”) (Written by Meriel Sheibani-Clare and Peter Morgan)
After a series of strokes, a declining Margaret recalls a wild night with her sister at the Ritz in 1945, and later celebrates her 70th birthday there.
Stream it now on Netflix
The Morning Show (“White Noise”) (Written by Joshua Allen)
When a contract negotiation becomes public, the old and new guards clash. Chris takes center stage.
Stream it now on Apple TV+
Station 19 (“With So Little to Be Sure Of”) (Written by Rochelle Zimmerman)
With both Vic's job and Crisis One in jeopardy, a flashback shows how the program has changed the lives of the team and the local community; Ben keeps a secret from Bailey.
Comedy Teleplay
Act Your Age (“Snip Snip”) (Written by Myles Warden and Capri Sampson)
The ladies take creative measures when objecting to Jacob and Olivia’s reproductive choices.
Stream it now on Netflix and Brown Sugar/Amazon Prime Video
Girls5eva (“Bomont”) (Written by Meredith Scardino and Janine Brito)
Deep in the Ozarks, the group clashes with a senator determined to censor the show; Wickie films a tour documentary; Summer has an identity crisis.
Stream it now on Netflix
Hacks (“Yes, And”) (Written by Samantha Riley, Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs)
A calendar mix-up finds Deborah double booked, just as an unfortunate supercut of her most problematic early jokes starts circulating.
Stream it now on Max
The Simpsons (”Night of the Living Wage”) (Written by Cesar Mazariegos)
Marge gets a job in a high-pressure ghost kitchen, but when she tries to start a union, she gets more than she collectively bargained for.
Stream it now on Hulu
Limited Series Teleplay
All the Light We Cannot See (“Episode 1”) (Written by Steven Knight)
August 1944. In Nazi-occupied Saint-Malo, Marie broadcasts through an air raid — an act punishable by death. Werner, a young German soldier, listens in.
Stream it now on Netflix
Fellow Travelers (“Your Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire”) (Written by Anya Leta)
Facing a polygraph test about his sex life, Hawk courts Lucy; Marcus makes peace with his attraction to Frankie; Roy threatens to destroy the Army when David is drafted; Tim recruits Hawk to help his AIDS activist group.
Stream it now on Paramount+
The Sympathizer (“Endings Are Hard, Aren’t They?”) (Written by Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar)
Back in Vietnam, the Captain is forced to tell his story and confront the decisions that haunt his past.
Stream it now on Max
We Were the Lucky Ones (“Rio”) (Written by Erica Lipez)
Halina's strength and hope are put to the test; Addy builds a new life in Rio; the end of the war triggers the Kurc family's final search for answers.
Stream it now on Hulu
Children’s Teleplay
Heartstopper (“Perfect”) (Written by Alice Oseman)
The gang comes together for a memorable prom with a fitting theme: "Summer of Love." But with someone important missing... it feels incomplete.
Stream it now on Netflix
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (“Ride or Die”) (Written by Halima Lucas)
When Moon Girl must transport Quickwhip to S.H.I.E.L.D., keeping the criminal in custody becomes harder than she imagined.
Stream it now on Disney+
Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin (Written by Robb Armstrong, Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano)
Newcomer Franklin has trouble fitting in with the Peanuts gang; then, he learns about a Soap Box Derby race, and he's sure that winning the race will also mean winning over new friends.
Stream it now on Apple TV+
What If...? ("What If... Hela Found the Ten Rings?") (Written by Matthew Chauncey)
Hela, stripped of her powers and banished to Earth, comes across a source of power: the Ten Rings.
Stream it now on Disney+
Drama Feature Film
All of Us Strangers (Written by Andrew Haigh)
One night in his near-empty London tower block, screenwriter Adam has a chance encounter with mysterious neighbor Harry, puncturing the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam finds himself drawn back to his childhood home, where his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died 30 years ago.
Stream it now on Hulu
Origin (Written by Ava DuVernay)
While investigating the global phenomenon of caste and its dark influence on society, a journalist faces unfathomable personal loss and uncovers the beauty of human resilience.
Stream it now on Hulu
Society of the Snow (Written by J.A. Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques-Olarreaga, and Nicolás Casariego)
Following a plane crash in the remote heart of the Andes, survivors join forces and become each other's best hope as they navigate their way back home.
Stream it now on Netflix
Suncoast (Written by Laura Chinn)
Inspired by the semi-autobiographical story of a teenager who, while caring for her brother along with her audacious mother, strikes up an unlikely friendship with an eccentric activist who is protesting one of the most landmark medical cases of all time.
Stream it now on Hulu
Comedy Feature Film
American Fiction (Written by Cord Jefferson)
A frustrated novelist, fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes, uses a pen name to write his own outlandish "Black" book and is suddenly swept up in the madness he claims to disdain.
Stream it now on Amazon Prime Video
Flora and Son (Written by John Carney)
Single mom Flora is at a loss about what to do with her rebellious teenage son, Max. Her efforts to keep him out of trouble lead to a beat-up acoustic guitar, a washed-up LA musician, and harmony for this frayed Dublin family.
Stream it now on Apple TV+
The Holdovers (Written by David Hemingson)
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school's head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.
Stream it now on Amazon Prime Video
Jules (Written by Gavin Steckler)
Milton finds his quiet life upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard. Things become even more complicated when two neighbors discover his secret and the government closes in.
Stream it now on Paramount+
Documentary
The Cowboy and the Queen (Written by Andrea Nevins and Graham Clark)
Monty Roberts, a nonviolent horse trainer who rejected traditional "breaking" methods, forms an unlikely friendship with Queen Elizabeth II. Bonding over their shared love for animals, they overcome Monty's doubters to broadcast his gentle approach globally.
The Cowboy and the Queen is coming to theaters on September 6th and streaming exclusively on MasterClass September 12th.
El Equipo: The Story of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Written by Bernardo Ruiz and Fabian Caballero)
Legendary U.S. anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow sets out to train a new group of Latin American students in the use of forensic anthropology. Their goal: to investigate disappearances in Argentina during the “dirty war.” The group expands its horizons, traveling to El Salvador, Bolivia, and Mexico, doggedly working behind the scenes to establish the facts for the families of the victims.
Stream it now on PBS
Sexual Healing (Written by Elsbeth Fraanje)
Evelien, spastic from birth, with only disappointing sexual experiences in her past, is taking the first steps on her quest for intimacy. After a lifetime of mostly clinical forms of touch, she sets out to claim sexual pleasure as part of her own experience. Evelien discovers new parts of her body and self, as she gradually opens to the needs and desires she has been suppressing all her life.
Stream it now on Amazon Prime Video
Family Feature Film
Elemental (Written by John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh)
In a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common.
Stream it now on Disney+
Frybread Face and Me (Written by Billy Luther)
A Navajo boy from San Diego experiences a cultural awakening when he spends summer vacation with his precocious cousin and their relatives on the rez.
Stream it now on Netflix
A Million Miles Away (Written by Bettina Gilois, Hernán Jiménez, and Alejandra Márquez Abella)
Inspired by the real-life story of NASA flight engineer José Hernández, A Million Miles Away follows him on a decades-long journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. With the support of his family, José’s drive & determination culminates in the opportunity to achieve his seemingly impossible goal.
Stream it now on Amazon Prime Video
Nimona (Written by Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor)
A knight framed for a tragic crime teams up with a scrappy, shape-shifting teen to prove his innocence. But what if she's the monster he's sworn to destroy?
Stream it now on Netflix
Short Film
Astonishing Little Feet (Written by Maegan Houang)
Afong Moy, the first documented Chinese woman to come to the United States, realizes the men who separated her from her family only have interest in profiting off the peculiarities of her bound feet.
Stream it now on Vimeo
The Ballad of Tita and the Machines (Written by Luis Antonio Aldana and Miguel Angel Caballero)
When Tita, an elderly fieldworker, reluctantly hires an AI humanoid to fill in for her picking strawberries, she attracts the engineers' attention because their humanoids cannot do her back-breaking work.
Stream it now on Indeed Rising Voices
Jelly (Written by Anndi Jinelle Liggett)
Jelly is a young Black girl in Bed-Stuy with a peculiar fascination with death. While trying to solve the mysterious case of a missing neighbor, she comes to terms with a more personal disappearance.
Jelly is not currently available on streaming.
The Rebel Girls (Written by Felicia D. Henderson)
"The Rebel Girls" is inspired by the true story of the 1960s fight for Civil Rights through the eyes of the girls who reinvigorated the struggling movement through the power of magical thinking, friendship, faith, and fortitude.
The Rebel Girls is not currently available on streaming.